Sebastian Vettel demands laid bare that show what it takes to be F1 champion
Horner and Newey praise Vettel's impact on Red Bull Racing
Four-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel had plenty of questions for Aston Martin after joining the team from Ferrari. Almost a decade removed from his last title, the former Red Bull driver replaced Sergio Perez in 2021.
Vettel, 36, would spend two years with the Silverstone-based team before surprisingly retiring from racing last year. He finished 12th in the driver standings at the end of both seasons, adding only a single podium to his total of 122.
A second-place finish behind Perez at the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was Aston Martin’s first podium and ultimately Vettel’s last. But working with him at the time has now been described as “daunting” by former Aston Martin strategist Bernie Collins.
“It was very daunting, knowing that he has been so critical in the past,” she said on Beyond the Grid, alluding to comments Vettel made while with Ferrari. “Even in the strategy meetings still, he would ask a lot of questions – very on top of what’s going on. Really wanted to understand the plans.
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“It did feel a bit of a spotlight on strategy in that moment, just because you wanted to get off on the right foot. It was very important to start off on the right foot. And, you know, we did we did that pretty successfully, I think.”
After four straight finishes outside the top ten, Vettel came fifth at Monaco before finishing as runner-up in Azerbaijan. “And he was definitely a lot kinder in person than what I expected,” Sanders continued. And maybe that was just expectation managed. But, you know, the relationship was really great.”
That was due to two vital traits Vettel possessed. “He had very good understanding of what you’re trying to achieve and why it might or might not work,” Sanders said.
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“And he had a very good memory for what had happened in the past. He would often have gone through some previous races, and he’d say, ‘oh, what about like in, I don’t know, like 2010?’
“I was like, ‘I’ve not looked that far back’. So then you’d have to go and look at that one.
“You know, a lot of the great drivers, which Sebastian did, could really build a picture of what was going on around them and what you were trying to achieve as a strategy so he could imagine, you know, the lines that we have on the paper as it was happening in real life.
“He would always communicate through his race engineer, but he would always be discussing what was happening in the strategy.
“And you hear it a lot from those drivers that are fit to watch a TV screen and say ‘so-and-so has pitted. I’ve seen them come in the pattern on the TV.
“I know what’s going to happen next’ – and they’re building the image of what it’s looking like.”
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